The Will of Stone
by Quartermaster
Summary: Rōshi is the jinchūriki of the Four-Tails beast, a man of forty, who has lived through more wars and bloodshed then any man or woman should in a lifetime. His journeys bring him all across the Five Great Shinobi Nations, seeking to find what is missing inside of him, not wanting to die a broken old man who could never confront his "inner demons."
1. Chapter 1

Iwagakure no Sato – the Village Hidden in the Stones – stood with pride underneath the warm rays of the sun. The village was unlike any other, with intricate stone buildings that stood tall enough to reach the skies. It was said that the First and Second Tsuchikage contracted the greatest stone masons and builders from all across the Land of Earth to build Iwagakure from the ground up. Today, in an era where the Third Tsuchikage reigns, the village stands as a testimony to the strength of its previous generations. _The Will of Stone_, the words rang through Rōshi's mind. In a way, Rōshi embodied this belief like each other villager, despite how different he was from them.

Rōshi of the Lava Release, a shinobi of vast strength and container of the Four-Tails. The sun's rays engulfed Rōshi, painting his skin in a bright light. His minor features that normally went unnoticed were much more prominent in the light, his skin wrinkled and calloused. His hands were that of a laborers and his eyes were weary, signs of a seasoned shinobi. He had chosen to a spot seperated from the rest of the village to rest, and contemplate. "Oi, Four-Tails..."

It sounded as if Rōshi was talking to himself, and for the most part he was. For a few seconds, the silence was unsettling. Rōshi knew he wasn't on common ground with the beast, but he still wanted more from the beast. He was it's container; the Four-Tails lived because of him. Yet the beast remained cold and seperated from Rōshi. _I know you're listening..._ this time Rōshi did not speak, he only thought.

His mind shifted, no longer a cloudy space where his thoughts rattled around from side to side. The clouds parted, and here Rōshi stood. He appeared to be floating, with a sea of flames swaying and roaring far below him. Even up here, his skin felt warm. "_What'cha want?_" the voice came as a bit of a surprise, but Rōshi kept his composure as the tailed beast appeared before him. It's breath was hot, almost as hot as the roaring flames from below. It's fur was an orange-red, its eyes the color of the sun. Twisted horns sat atop its head, and its thick simian arms looked ready to crush Rōshi at any second. But the beast wouldn't, so Rōshi was not afraid.

"You've been restless the last few days, and now you're suddenly quiet?"

The Four-Tails looked almost afraid, if a beast like it could actually show fear. It growled, and lowered its head to Rōshi's level. "_Go back, it ain't any of your concern..._" it spoke without emotion or care. For what seemed like an eternity, although it wasn't more then thirty or thirty-five years, Rōshi and the Four-Tailed beast were chained to each other, and they never got along. Maybe it was because the beast thought of Rōshi as a prison, while Rōshi held it in contempt for all of his anger and frustration. It was a fair trade at least, for both were damned to live as monsters in the eyes of the world. Rōshi had tried everything he could with the beast, from trying to defeat it to befriending it. In the end, he could do nothing more then barter with it. His reward, the ability to control Lava as a second nature. He wanted much more though...

"There's word going around through the village, that a Tailed Beast went rampant across the Land of Fire..." Rōshi had a feeling that this was what was troubling the Four-Tails. "You all are linked, right? Is that why you've been so quiet?"

The Four-Tails glared at Rōshi, with contempt and anger. Even though the Four-Tails was so much taller then Rōshi, he could do nothing to his jailer. "_We are what you'd call 'brothers'_, _although I use that word loosely_."

"Brothers, aye?" Rōshi felt as though he was getting somewhere with the Four-Tails. "And you could feel him, even though you're inside me?" Rōshi took another glance at the flames below and saw how the waves of fire had calmed.

"_Ain't nothing more then two parts of a greater source of power_, _boy._"

_There he goes, calling me boy again. _Rōshi was well into his forties, yet the Four-Tails continued to call him boy. Rōshi figured that the beast has lived so long, even Rōshi was young to him, so he did not complain openly. "There hasn't been word from the Land of Fire, do you know how it ended?"

The Four-Tails huffed, spewing green flame as he did so. Rōshi thought he could make out a smile on the Four-Tails face, but he wasn't sure. "_The strongest of us was sealed_," the Four-Tails laughed at the thought. "_Can you believe it? The Nine-Tailed Fox sealed into the body of an infant!_" The Four-Tails laughed even harder.

"An infant?" this troubled Rōshi.

At the age of six, Rōshi was taken away from his parents. The Second Tsuchikage, that bastard Mū, sealed the Four-Tails into Rōshi. After that day, everything changed for him. He was feared, hated, and despised by everyone. The destruction that the Four-Tails had caused a year prior left a burning hatred in the minds of the villagers, and left Rōshi angry at the world. Rōshi looked up at the beast, wondering if the Four-Tails recalled the day he was sealed inside Rōshi. _It would be best to not bring that up_, Rōshi thought.

Rōshi opened his eyes, and was met with the sun's strong rays. His wrinkled skin had tanned a bit, after what seemed like hours of meditating. He was only forty, but he felt as though he was sixty. As a tool to the village, an ultimate weapon created for the sole purpose of destruction, Rōshi had taken a large toll physically and mentally. "It's a five day travel from here to Konohagakure," Rōshi said to himself, glancing towards the ground. He expected to see a sea of flames, whether they be roaring or calm. All he saw was the villagers, both citizen and shinobi, moving through their day as if it was any other. If only they knew that today.. a jinchūriki was born.


	2. Chapter 2

A day had passed since Rōshi had set out from the village, masquerading his journey to the Tsuchikage as a training session alongside the Four-Tails. Ōnoki was a strong shinobi and a powerful leader, but he was as much of a fool as any other. It took little convincing for him to allow Rōshi to set out on his own; normally he would've placed members of the ANBU in the shadows to follow Rōshi, to report every single thing he did whether it was stopping for rest or bathing. The ANBU didn't know the word privacy, as far as Rōshi was concerned.

But today was different; there were no ANBU in the shadows. They may have been masters of infiltration, stealth, and cunning, but no man or woman rivaled a jinchūriki's sense of awareness. Rōshi wasn't sure what the Tsuchikage was up to, but for the time being, he would ignore it.

"_So you're goin'?_" a voice called.

"Yes," for some reason, Rōshi wasn't in the mood for conversation. Sadly, the Four-Tails was the type who didn't want to talk when you wanted to talk, but was talkative when you wanted to keep quiet. Rōshi figured he was the only shinobi in the world who had to deal with problems like this, but he kept quiet about it. "I want to see the boy."

"_Haha_!" the great ape laughed, although it was meant to mock Rōshi. "_The second you step foot into that village, they'll have your head. Maybe then I'll be free, you're getting to old for the likes of me, The Great Sage Equal to Heaven-_"

"Quiet down," Rōshi said with a stern face. The Four-Tails was boastful, more then Rōshi would ever be able to care for. He was always the quiet type, so the Four Tails fiery personality had become a thorn in Rōshi's side, as if the scorn of his fellow shinobi wasn't painful enough. The Four-Tails didn't speak anymore, and Rōshi wasn't certain how he felt about that.

The winds blew through the trees, whispering to each other the way nature does. He felt alone in the forest, without another human being in sight, or even the ANBU tagging close behind. For all it's worth, he used to enjoy the fact that the ANBU followed him. It made him feel secure, like a big brother watching over him. But Rōshi was older now, and disliked the idea of being "watched" like he was some little boy. He was many things, whether it was a man or a monster, but if one thing was certain it was that he was no boy.

A kunai skid past Rōshi's face, with a white tag tied to it. He was so preoccupied with his thoughts he had no noticed whoever threw the kunai, but before he could do anything, the explosive tag lit on fire and triggered.

_BOOM!_

The tag exploded, no more then a few feet away from Rōshi. A cloud of smoke enveloped him, and for a brief second he couldn't feel part of his body. It wasn't until the smoke began to part, that he was relieved to see his legs still attached. His clothing was burned, and his arm cut up from the bits of branches that exploded into him. Otherwise, he was alright. He took solace in the fact that a jinchūriki was stronger then the average man.

"You're a strong one, huh?"

Rōshi's eyes met with his attacker. His face was hidden behind a mask, yet he was no ANBU of Iwagakure. He wore a tattered cloak, and carried a katana over his shoulder. He saw a headband, hanging from the man's neck, but it didn't have any emblem. _Who is this man_?

Another kunai struck the ground in front of Rōshi, this one lacking an explosive tag. The kunai was different then most kunai; its blade was curved and glistened like it was wet. _Poison,_ Rōshi was familiar with shinobi who used poison in the past. A dozen of them had, at one point, used the weapons on Rōshi himself. "You're from Kirigakure?" Rōshi knew the kunai design, having seen it used in the war. Some of the shinobi who were dispatched that far easy brought back kunai like these as trophies, from the shinobi that they killed.

"Observant, aren't we?" his voice was sharp, and it made Rōshi's blood boil. "I was just passing through, when I spotted you a few miles back. I knew right away who you were, Rōshi, and I plan on milking you for what you're worth."

Rōshi brought himself to his feet, ripping the kunai from the ground and holding it towards his masked assailant. He made sure not to touch the wet poison on the blade, keeping his hand tight around the grip. "What is a shinobi from Kirigakure doing all the way out here?"

"A little of this, a little of that," the man leaped down from the trees onto Rōshi's level. His hand was gently wrapped around his sword, and Rōshi could tell that the man was smiling behind his mask. The emblem of Kirigakure was imprinted onto the forehead of the mask, but a thin slash had been drawn across it. "Although these days, I'm more of a collector."

"Collector?" Rōshi asked, although he was sure he knew the answer. "Collector of what, pray tell?"

"Bounties..." the man disappeared instantly, leaving Rōshi alone once more. "And you, my friend, have a pretty damn high bounty on your head!" the man appeared from the shadows, katana in hand, aimed directly at Rōshi's back. The blade nearly tore right through Rōshi's breastplate, but he had jerked his body to the side, letting the blade bounce off the plate.

Rōshi thrust forward the kunai, hoping to catch the man with his own weapon. Just as Rōshi was to quick to get cut by the katana, his attacker was quick enough to grab Rōshi by the wrist befor he could land a hit. They had drawn themselves into a deadlock, Rōshi with one hand open and his attacker with two hands occupied. He folded his hand into a half-tiger seal, and felt his chakra swell in his mouth. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique," Rōshi's lips pursed and flames poured forward. They engulfed the masked man from head to toe, leaving Rōshi only the image of the man's long teal hair burning to ash.

When the flames stopped, Rōshi was holding a limp arm connected to a charred corpse. _Was he that weak?_ Rōshi thought as he let the arm go, but he quickly saw his mistake. The limp had suddenly came back to life, having snatched the kunai from Rōshi's hand, it lunged and caught Rōshi right in the chest. His torso burned for a brief second, he could feel the poison spreading. His eyes looked up, and he could see the man alive and well, despite being burnt to death in Rōshi's arms only a few seconds before. "What are you?" Rōshi asked as his chest went numb.

"A monster..." the man said in a icy voice, before Rōshi blacked out.

Rōshi was alone with his thoughts now, unable to move from the poison. It had acted so fast, only a member of the Kirigakure ANBU could have devised a poison so fast acting and potent. Rōshi was certain that the man had died from the fire, yet he came back to life._ A forbidden technique? It had to be..._ rumors had spread far and wide that the Second Hokage had mastered some forbidden technique that allowed him to bring the dead back to life. _An evil practice... yet that man reigned as Hokage, _for a second Rōshi forgot about the less than savory studies of his villages own Second Hokage who had created an array of techniques capable of destroying anything with the flick of a wrist. Rōshi never understood how men who did not regard human like as anything but sacred, could attain such powerful positions.

"_Because it's the powerful who take control,_" the Four-Tails spoke. "_If the Second Hokage and Second Tsuchikage were weak enough to get brought down by a simple poison, I doubt they'd have led an entire village without an uprising..._"

"Must you mock me, even now?"

The Four-Tails laughed, his same mocking laugh. "_Yes, because if you don't snap out of it soon you'll be dead in no time. If you die, who knows what's going to happen to me? On one hand, I could die and it will leave your village weaker and subject to the whim of the stronger villages or I can be set free and it would be on your hands that hundreds died and a tailed beast ravaged the country._"

"And you find that hilarious."

"_Yup!_"

Rōshi frowned. "Give me some of your power, and I'll take him out."

The Four-Tails' brow furrowed, almost as if he was uncertain. "_Don't think so, boy._"

Rōshi wasn't in the mood to argue, but he did know a way to get back at this selfish excuse for a beast who lived inside of him. He looked towards the sea of fire beneath, and motioned his hand. The flames parted, and chains rose up, tightening around the Four-Tails before it could even react. Rōshi could see the rage in the beasts eyes, yet it could not move. "You're so content with being lazy, enjoy a nice relaxing swim." The chains pulled down, retracting into the sea of flames, pulling the Four Tails with it.

He was alone again, with his thoughts.

Then suddenly, Rōshi could move again. He curled his fingers, and then his toes. His arm twitched, and took a deep breathe of air. "Looks like the poison wore off," that same icy voice spoke from the shadows. Rōshi could see a figure step forward, wearing a long charred cloak that was tattered and worn far beyond its years. Rōshi's hands were bound and a sealing tag was placed against his chest. "Good morning, Rōshi."


End file.
